"It worked!"
Erica let out a long breath and collapsed right onto the beach, not caring in the slightest as sand clung to her dark brown tights.
She had not lost consciousness. She had not gone to the boundary between life and death where Pandora resided, nor had she obtained any Authority. Even so, she could clearly feel that something inside her had changed in some indescribable way.
And Erica was not mistaken. After accomplishing the slaying of a god, her fate had indeed changed.
It had not yet reached the level of a true Campione, but it could be said that with this transformed fate alone, even without Akuto's help, Erica would absolutely surpass her uncle and become a top-tier existence just beneath the Campione.
"And all of this... was for Akuto."
Lying on the sand, Erica looked up at the boy in the sky who had stopped the giant sword with both hands. Her violet eyes overflowed with love.
She knew that being able to fulfill her dream of slaying a god just like her ancestor had only been possible because of the boy before her.
No, not just that.
Without Akuto, she probably would have gone on being toyed with by the destiny laid out for her.
Yes, Akuto was a man with a wandering heart. But since he truly did care for them, and was not merely chasing physical desire, Erica was willing to accept that.
She knew now that her former self had simply been too arrogant, arrogant enough to think she herself truly had a chance of slaying a god. Because of that, she had always held both herself and any future partner to impossibly high standards.
Then the Boar had taught her a brutal lesson.
It had shown her the gulf between humans and gods, and it had shown her just how naive she had been.
After lowering the expectations she placed on herself, the expectations she had for a future partner had also lowered quite a bit.
And yet, after lowering her expectations, what she received instead was the love of a man who far surpassed all the standards she used to hold.
All she could say was... life truly was unpredictable.
...
"Hm?"
Over on Doni's side...
Because he had simply followed his instincts and swung his sword toward the place where the god was, he had not specifically chosen a target apart from aiming at the Heretic God itself. So he did not know who had blocked his attack, only that it had indeed been blocked.
"Hiss... That feedback from the force... no Authority was used. That's pure physical impact rebound!"
"Which means the opponent caught my magic sword by physical means alone?!"
Salvatore Doni was known as the Sword King and possessed swordsmanship of a terrifying, transcendent level. So even without seeing what had happened directly, he could still infer the situation from the feedback transmitted through his blade.
"The force vanished? That pressure just disappeared!"
The moment he sensed that through the sword, Doni instinctively invoked Steel Protection.
"O blood of the evil dragon Fafnir, grant me the destiny of undying life!"
Ong...
The Sword King's body turned metallic, countless runes engraved across it, and his defense instantly rose to its limit.
In the next instant, a boy's figure flashed in front of Doni and struck him with a flying kick!
Boom!!
A heavy, resounding impact rang out, like a temple bell being struck with a great wooden log.
Along with that bell-like crash, Doni's body was sent hurtling backward, plowing a trench hundreds of meters long through the concrete by the beach.
"Oh? Steel Protection, huh?"
Akuto raised a brow. He had to admit, he did admire Doni's combat instincts. The moment Doni sensed something wrong, he activated Steel Protection immediately and avoided the embarrassment of being kicked into critical condition in one blow.
Steel Protection was the Authority Salvatore Doni had usurped from the Norse hero Siegfried.
As far as defensive Authorities went, Steel Protection was nearly perfect.
When using Steel Protection defensively, close to a hundred runic letters would appear around Doni's body. His metal-like form and the runes' mystery gave his flesh the hardness and weight of steel. Ordinary attacks became less than a drizzle to him.
When using Steel Protection offensively, its tremendous weight and defensive force, combined with Rending Silver Arm, gave Doni an even greater boost to both attack and defense.
The offensive boost came from the enormous weight inherent in Steel Protection, while the defensive boost came from the fact that Rending Silver Arm could crystallize his arm. Once that crystallized arm was stacked with Steel Protection, the resulting defense became outrageous.
And beyond offense and defense, the steel body meant Doni no longer needed oxygen or food. Even if he stayed underwater or in a vacuum for years, he would not die.
Moreover, as a final measure, Doni could even enter a state of feigned death to evade fatal attacks, though in that state he became completely defenseless and took on enormous risk.
Like all steel gods, the greatest weakness of his steel immortality was extreme heat. Even so, Doni could still withstand attacks of around a thousand degrees. Anything less than that amounted to little more than superficial wounds.
In the original story, even when Godou used White Horse, he merely blasted Doni into a lake and did not truly break through his defense.
So then... how had Doni obtained such a perfect defensive Authority?
The answer was simple.
He stole it right out from under Marquis Voban's nose.
Using the terrifying sharpness provided by Rending Silver Arm, Doni tore through the defenses of the manifested Siegfried and successfully slew him.
Which meant that at least in Doni's case, the contest between the strongest spear and the strongest shield had ended in victory for the strongest spear.
Of course, that did not mean Steel Protection was weaker than Rending Silver Arm.
The reason Doni used Rending Silver Arm so masterfully, to the point that even the god-king Nuada would have had to admit inferiority, was entirely because Doni himself was an exceptional swordsman beyond all norms.
It could be said that it was Doni's own nature that made Rending Silver Arm seem one level more terrifying.
Even Luo Hao, unrivaled in martial skill, had to admit that at least in the way of the sword, Doni's attainments did not fall short of her own.
...
Relying on the terrifying defense of Steel Protection, Doni managed to withstand Akuto's kick. He was only launched several hundred meters away, leaving behind a long gouge in the ground.
"Cough, cough, cough! Ptoo! Ptoo, ptoo!"
A few seconds later, Doni spat out several mouthfuls of concrete dust before climbing back to his feet.
"Hey, hey. Isn't it a bit rude to attack without even saying hello first?"
"Though, since I also attacked without saying hello just now, I guess I won't hold it against you."
Doni grinned.
Even though he had been hit by a sneak attack, his favor toward Akuto had not dropped in the slightest. If anything, it had risen.
Part of that was because he liked Akuto's style of getting straight to the fight without wasting words. A Campione with that kind of personality probably would not refuse his requests for a duel, unlike Black Prince Alec, who always took the passive route and avoided battles.
The other reason was the force Doni had felt in that kick. For some reason, the power behind Akuto's strike had reminded him of the terrifying might of Luo Hao's divine palm, or perhaps even something beyond it.
"Your name is... Lin... Lin... Akuto, right? Interested in a proper head-on duel with me?"
Since Akuto had now become a Campione, Doni was finally able to dig that long-buried name out of his memory.
It could be said that if Akuto had not been confirmed as a Campione, then even if Doni had met him several more times, he still would never have remembered his name.
On Akuto's side...
Hearing the way Doni addressed him, Akuto smiled and shook his head.
"Doni, don't you think you're being a little rude?"
"Huh? Rude? You mean the part where I attacked without saying hello?"
"Sorry, sorry. I just got too excited when I saw a god. All I could think about was hurrying over to steal the kill."
As expected of Doni, he could say something like "I just wanted to steal the kill" with complete openness.
"No." Akuto smiled and shook his head again.
"The reason I say you're being rude is because you didn't address your grandmaster properly."
"Hm?"
Akuto's words instantly made Doni frown.
Even though his intelligence had already been dulled by the berserk surge of his Authority and magical power, he still retained basic instinctive thinking.
He had lost calm judgment and restraint, but he had not lost his intelligence altogether.
It was like doing math. Once Doni lost control, he would use addition to solve multiplication problems. In other words, he might not be able to do the proper calculation, but he still retained the most basic intelligence needed to add.
And it was precisely that minimal remaining intelligence that made him feel something about Akuto's words was very strange.
"Grandmaster?"
"When did I ever get a grandmaster? And when did I ever call my grandmaster by name?"
Doni looked completely baffled. He was even starting to wonder if he had been hit by some Authority that tampered with his perception.
Under Doni's suspicious stare, Akuto revealed a smile even more suspicious than Doni's.
"Doni, if I told you Saint Raphael is my woman..."
"Then tell me, wouldn't that make me your grandmaster?"
...
"..."
"Huh?!"
Salvatore Doni's entire face became one giant question mark.
What?
Saint Raphael?!
Since when did Saint Raphael have that kind of relationship with Akuto?
"Hahaha! Akuto, I used to think my joke-telling was unmatched in this world, but I never imagined your sense of humor would surpass even mine! Fine, I admit defeat, my friend!"
Perhaps because what Akuto had just said was too shocking, Doni directly assumed it had to be a joke, praised it enthusiastically, and raised his opinion of Akuto even further.
"You think I'm joking?" Akuto asked with a smile.
"Huh? Aren't you joking?" There was a crystal-clear stupidity in Doni's eyes.
"Of course not. Why would I make that kind of joke with someone I only just met?"
Doni: "..."
Yes. He suddenly realized Akuto's logic made far too much sense.
Wait.
If that was true, then...
"That old woman Saint Raphael actually got herself a man?!"
Salvatore Doni found reality very hard to accept.
Damn.
That meant the boy standing in front of him really was his grandmaster?!
(End of Chapter)
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